Son gives clues to al-Qaeda lairs

A son of Osama bin Laden's deputy has given crucial information on the location of al-Qaeda leaders after being captured by Pakistani forces near the Afghanistan border, intelligence officials in Islamabad say.

Ayman al-Zawahiri's son, Khalid, was seized with 20 other suspected foreign militants in a raid in the remote South Waziristan area 10 days ago, the officials told London's The Sunday Telegraph.

His information has helped direct Pakistani and US forces in their drive to capture bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda figures believed to be in the area.

In another blow to the terrorist organisation, a former Iraqi intelligence officer captured by police after last week's bombings in Baghdad and Kerbala has revealed that he was paid by al-Qaeda to target civilians.

Mohammed Hanoun Hamoud al-Mozani was detained with two associates a day after nearly 200 people died in explosions at shrines packed with Shiites.

"We think that this is a big breakthrough," said Major Mohammed Dayekh, of the Najaf police. "Al-Mozani admitted that he was part of a terrorist cell that answered to a middleman who works for al-Qaeda and he gave us the names of the four other men in the cell - two from Baghdad and two from Najaf."

The middleman, Abu Utthman, allegedly told al-Mozani he was a deputy of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian whom the coalition blames for most of the attacks in Iraq.

"Al-Mozani said they were offered between $US20,000 and $US30,000 to organise terrorist attacks and that they would get bonus money if the attacks led to the death of a large number of people," Major Dayekh said.

In Islamabad, officials have privately confirmed that Khalid al-Zawahiri is being questioned by a team of intelligence officers - from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the CIA - at a secret location in Pakistan.

They say that recent sweeps by British and US special forces in the Tora Bora mountains have been linked to disclosures by al-Zawahiri and others, including his wife, captured with him during raids on houses in Azam Warak. Al-Zawahiri is said to have been in touch with his father recently.

Hundreds of troops from Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps, backed by helicopter gunships, have been sent to the area to tackle the foreign militants and either capture bin Laden or drive him across the Afghan border into US hands.

More than 1600 US troops, including special forces units, are at Salerno base, near Khost in eastern Afghanistan, ready for a spring offensive to capture the terrorist mastermind.